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Photo Gallery: Marine Worms

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Peanut Worm

Photograph by Darlyne A. Murawski, National Geographic

The peanut worm has a proboscis that resembles an elephant’s trunk, as well as a mouth that boasts an impressive array of tentacles. This bottom burrower feeds on organic materials found in mud and sand, and when done feasting it can turn the proboscis inside out to retract it inside its body. Peanut worms are often tiny but can reach 1.5 feet (0.5 meters) in length.

Tube Worm

Photograph by Paul Sutherland, National Geographic

This colorful tube worm inhabits the pleasant seas surrounding the Greek Isles. But its relatives occupy some of Earth’s most inhospitable spots. Giant tube worms live next to deep sea hydrothermal vents found miles below the surface, where total darkness, extreme water pressures, and a lack of oxygen allow few other species to survive.

Flatworm

Photograph by Tobias Bernhard, Photolibrary/Getty Images

Here, a pink, leaflike flatworm settles on the seafloor, but these animals typically favor rocky bottom cover and aren’t so easily spotted. Flatworms are simple animals. They have no circulatory systems, and because their bodies are so flat, oxygen simply penetrates directly into tissue without the benefit of a respiratory system. Flatworms' mouths take in nutrients and also expel undigested waste. However, these worms are also accomplished predators. When they catch snails, bivalves, or other prey they simply wrap their bodies around their victims and inject them with digestive enzymes.

Marine Worm

Photograph by David Liittschwager, National Geographic

A wiggling marine worm distorts a single drop of water in an image that reveals its tiny size. Some polychaetes are sedentary bottom or tube dwellers, but other “free-living” marine worms use their many bristles, as well as snakelike wriggles, to move about the seas.

Spaghetti Worm

Photograph by Darlyne A. Murawski, National Geographic

This studio shot reveals a spaghetti worm’s body, which typically lies hidden in sediment or rocky crevices while its food-gathering tentacles wave overhead. Though the worm’s body is only 6 inches (15 centimeters) long, its tentacles may spread out over six times that length. Spaghetti worm tentacles employ grooves to channel small organic particles to the worm’s mouth, or simply grab and stuff larger morsels. If a tentacle is lost or snapped up by a fish, a new one can be grown to take its place.

Magnified Marine Worm

Photograph by David Liittschwager, National Geographic

A polychaete worm from Hawaiian waters looms large under the lens of a laboratory magnifying glass. Scientists are still learning much about the estimated 8,000 known species of marine worms found throughout the world’s seas. While their earthworm cousins tend to occupy the same subterranean turf, different polychaetes may burrow into beaches, float on the sea’s surface, or dwell in its depths.

Feather Duster Worm

Photograph by Heather Perry, National Geographic

The “feathers” of this feather duster worm are actually tentacles that feature an array of fine hairs. The bottom-dwelling worms use these “fans” to gather plankton or other bits of floating food, as well as to take in oxygen. Some feather dusters boast fans 6 inches (15 centimeters) across.

Feather Duster Worms

Photograph by Darlyne A. Murawski, National Geographic

Feather duster worms build their own tubes, using mucus and bits of sand or mud, and then live within them attached to hard seafloor surfaces. The worms can retract completely into their tubes when threatened by an animal or even a sudden motion or light. The “feather duster” crown sticking out of a typical tube is a suite of tentacles that adorns the worm’s head.

Marine Worm

Photograph by Darlyne A. Murawski, National Geographic

A close-up view shows the mouth of a yellow marine worm, one of some 8,000 species of polychaetes, named for the many bristles that typically cover their bodies. Polychaetes are holdovers from a far more ancient Earth. They appear in the fossil record at least as early as the Cambrian period, 540 to 490 million years ago.

Spawning Fireworms

Photograph by Darlyne A. Murawski, National Geographic

Fireworms, like those seen here gathering to spawn, boast an array of toxic bristles. These bristles have hollow tubes filled with poison, which break easily when touched to discourage predators. They also inflict a painful rash on any human who handles them. Fireworms are carnivores that feast on corals, snails, or other worms. They surprise and snare such fare with hidden jaws concealed inside an innocent-looking, rounded front end.

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